The musings, thoughts, frustrations and funnies from a first grade teacher in Southern California!

5.24.2011

And then there were 3...

We have survived our first 2 days of "camping". I am glad to say that my kids are having fun. I am glad I decided to do it.

Yesterday, we talked about what camping is, what we need to use when we are camping and where we can go camping. We wrote in our "camping journals" and did some group work.

Today we talked about the animals we would see if we were to go hiking in the forest. We made our lists in our groups, shared them out and then went for a nature walk through the grass field behind us. I was amazed at what we saw today. We saw a big fat toad, little frogs, tadpoles, lots of birds, a caterpillar, pincher bugs, a variety of spiders and bugs. The kids thought it was the greatest thing in the world. It made me feel so good that they could do that. We spent over an hour outside. It was a blast, and luckily it was warm today. A nice spring day looking at nature.

Tomorrow we will talk about food. I'm not bringing anything in, as my cheacking account doesn't have the $ to support it. But, I did buy some mini marshmallows. We'll eat them, graph if we like them or not and then we are going to see who can build the tallest mini marshmallow tower. Should be fun and exciting to see them freak when they fall! I also can't wait to see who can do it. I have a guess of who may do it well, but I may be surprised.

In other activities, we did the Skittles math. The kids had fun with it, but they thought I was nuts giving them all the math I did. But, they did it and they did it right! I must have taught them something they took with them!

Tomorrow we will do a Cheerios estimating and project. They will have to estimate and then count their Cheerios. Then, they will have to get their creative cap on and make a mosaic out of Cheerios. We were going to do it today, but we spent too much time outside, if there is such a thing.

Thursday will be our field day, followed by some M&M math and a video or something soothing. Friday will be clean up day, game day and party day. I don't know if we are going to bring anything in or just make them popcorn...I haven't got that far yet.

Well, I am off to make dinner. Just 3 more days. I am jealous of those who are done already and I am not envious of those of you who still have more time. But, just remember, when you are on vacation in August, I will be meeting my new little kids and getting to work! Happy Tuesday!